Kings Lioness: Thanks for your review, Laur!

Patricia L. Bryans: Well, you won't be disappointed. This premonition is particularly detailed. You'll like it, I think. Sorry if it gets too graphic…

Oni-Gil: Yep. Now you have draw another!

chuckles1414: Thank you, as usual, for your review!

Aussie-Soccerfreak4: Thanks, mate! That really means a lot! You are such a great pal! Aussies rock!

A/N: This is the chapter that makes this story "T" rated. I beg of you all: if you do not like graphic and you do not like rape and assault, please do not read the italicized bit of this chapter. Even if you don't read it, the regular print will tell the basic of what happened. Just a warning. And remember, it is a premonition. Whether it comes true or not you'll have to find out…

-17-

Heather was screaming. Lying on an alter, she was convulsing as electricity spread through her veins like it had for Samantha, the sound of her screams blasting and echoing everywhere. Her arms and legs strained at the ropes binding her, and they sliced into her skin as she jerked even more so than before. Her body constricted against her chains as the energy mercilessly entered her body, a slow killer. As her back arched in pain, she screamed louder and with more urgency as her body protested.

"Lucy!"

Heather's mouth formed her sister's name urgently. Her face was streaking with sweat and dirt, pleadingly, fighting to have someone, one person, hear her and come to her rescue. Blood began to trickle down her ankles and wrists from cuts that the thin ropes inflicted and mingled with the grime on the stone on which she was held.

All at once, the electricity and the screaming stopped. She lay on the ground now, shaking, her skin smoking from the voltage she had experienced. She was gasping, fighting to breathe, to get her strength, but unable to choke back sobs of pain and hopelessness.

Another sound…a laugh…cold, cruel, menacing, unlike anything heard ever before. A figure approached the fallen woman slowly and deliberately basking in her pain and discomfort. When he reached her, he got to his knees beside her and forced her roughly on her back with huge claws. The tattered clothing was ripped from Heather's frame and waist as her arms and legs were restrained by chains. A pair of heavy, blackened hands then roamed her body, fondling her mature breasts, twisting fingers in her head of long, flowing hair that was now being disheveled and mussed hungrily. The figure bent close to the woman and kissed her chest slowly, over and over, his body pressing down on her, pressure causing her lungs to compact. Then he slowly licked the base of her neck and moved his tongue up, up, up past her chin and continued to her ear, which it then sucked and nibbled, but not lightly or lovingly at all.

Heather screamed again, sobbing the names of her sisters, fighting with all her strength to dislodge the figure from her, but she was powerless against him. A rough, huge body lowered itself towards her, shadowy and dark. She couldn't stop him, couldn't stop screaming, pleading, praying. He forced itself onto her naked, shaking body, and tore into her with angry and furious passion. He moved and jerked and squirmed in her, biting her neck and chewing her chin and throat and chest, oblivious to her frantic moans. Pain, more pain than she had ever felt before…heat…screaming…burning…"LUCY!"

"HEATHER!" Lucy yelled her sister's name as she started back into reality at the same time she heard her name screamed. Her eyes opened to see that she was kneeling on the ground, knees digging into stony dirt, her hands gripping her hair, sweat dripping from her face onto her blue shirt, pooling and damp. What she had seen had been so real. It had to be true. It was so vivid. She could feel the heat steaming around her sister and her attacker, could feel the churning dirt beneath them as Heather fought and the figure gloried, heard the sucks and the gasps and the moans, tasted the blood, the sweat, the fear.

The Charmed Ones stood around their charge, not knowing what to do or what to say, shocked into silence. Phoebe had warned her sisters not to touch the woman, who had gotten another premonition as they were being transported to the Underworld. Now, down in a dark, dank cave somewhere in the Underworld, they had been glancing around them nervously as soon as their feet touched dirt, until Lucy had screamed Heather's name, still standing, Phoebe's hand was still on her shoulder, and Phoebe herself seemed not to be affected by the premonition. As Lucy staggered sideways and fell, jerking out of her premonition, Phoebe dropped to her knees to catch her, supporting the younger woman with her own body. Piper, Prue, and Paige, who all seemed anxious, but also felt a stab of helplessness and worry, stood guarding the two within an enclosed circle, though they did not know what against.

Lucy felt Phoebe's familiar body press against hers and allowed herself collapse, dissolving into hysterics and as she did, she clutched her heart and pulled closer to the Charmed One, burying her head in Phoebe's chest, shaking uncontrollably. Phoebe didn't know what to do, so she acted on her instinct and held Lucy tightly to herself, rocking her back and forth, ignorant and slightly afraid to what the woman had witnessed. For a long minute, the only sound was Lucy's muffled sobs. Finally Piper broke the silence, feeling that they should be pressing on, though she respected what Lucy was experiencing. "Lucy. Are we in danger here? What did you just see?"

The younger woman did not answer at first. Her mind was buzzing with what she had seen, but otherwise numb with the pain of her sister, her ears screaming with Heather's pleas. "H-Heather," she choked. "No, please…Heather!" She looked up with terror-stricken eyes, but it didn't look as if she saw the Charmed Ones around her at all. "No! Heather…we have to go….we have to save her. I s-saw her…my…my sisters….have to be w-with her."

Prue looked at her sisters, as Phoebe silently pleaded for help. Slowly, she turned back to Lucy, trying to calm her down to tell them what had happened. "Lucy," she said, quietly, folding the trembling woman in her strong arms comfortingly, trying to be a solid presence for Lucy to speak to and trust. "You need to tell us what you saw. We can help you. We can protect you."

Slowly, Lucy's sobs subsided, hiccoughing into the passageways leading for the cavern. The other women tried to wait patiently, Piper still glancing around uncertainly. Then Lucy spoke, her monotone voice penetrating into their minds with the horrors she described. "S-she was being electrocuted…t-tortured for information…about me. She was…sc-screaming my…my name." A whimper escaped her lips, but she controlled herself enough to continue. "Then, she was on the ground and a demon…or something…a…" The pain was too much. It was almost as if Lucy herself could feel what her eldest sister went through. "The demon…he…he raped…" Unable to speak anymore, she dissolved into tears again. She let them come this time.

When Lucy had finally narrated what she had seen happen, Phoebe looked up quickly at her sisters, her eyes clouding with fear. She realized that demons were evil, but so horrible as to use a human for its amusement? Its plaything? She had never heard of a demon doing that ever before, and her eyes narrated that to her. Prue had put her hand to her mouth in shock and was unable to hold back a gasp. Paige comforted her, an arm around Prue's shoulders warmly, but she was quivering. Even after just meeting her sisters, Paige could not any of them taken advantage of and was stunning. She drew her sister closer to her as Phoebe did the same to Lucy.

But Piper was still looking around. Had something just moved in that shadow across the room? No, it couldn't have been anything. Her eyes were just…she turned her head back to her sisters but then she could have sworn something had just flickered to her right. Squinting into the darkness, she could see nothing. She was just about to look at Lucy when there it was again. Or was that different? It was to her left this time. She needed a second opinion, that's for sure. "Prue," she whispered toward her sister.

"Piper, not a good time," Prue hissed incredulously with a glance at Lucy.

Again, Piper's quick eyes caught sight of movement. This time, she knew something had moved in the shadows. "But Prue," she whispered, louder and more urgently. "Something's-"

A fireball hurtled abruptly out of the air towards the Charmed Ones, cutting off Piper's words, but her reflexes saved her life. She dodged quickly out of the way, but didn't escape a glance off her shoulder from the flame. She cried out in pain as the demon responsible materialized from the shadows. Prue, who had seen what had happened, quickly disentangled herself from Paige calling out, "Phoebe! Lucy! Demon!"

"Two!" Cried Piper, gripping her arm painfully, trying to watch the demon but examine her shoulder at the same time.

"No, three," Lucy corrected, her face red and puffy from crying, but her eyes intense with hate. She was right. Three demons closed in on the five witches; huge, powerful, grotesque demons, each holding up thin rods. Pandamonium broke out and with the women yelling, the demons roaring, energy balls being formed, a dull roar echoed in everyone's ears. Piper threw up her hands and flicked her wrists, but her combustion power only made the demon advancing on her jerk slightly from the blow, his cloak burned only a small bit. Phoebe and Lucy were on their feet at last, back to back. Prue and Paige were facing another demon between them. It grinned menacingly and slowly formed another fireball in his palm, savoring the moment.

"Look out!" Paige yelled as it shot towards them. The girls ducked out of the way. Prue hit the ground as Paige disappeared in a flurry of white. The energy ball hissed through the air right where Paige had been a second before, and Paige reappeared in the same spot a split second later, looking frightened but quite unharmed.

"Paige! Use your powers to deflect the fire!" Prue yelled over the noise. The third demon threw an energy ball at the hard-eyed, eldest witch, but she thrust her hand up, palm out, and the sphere ricocheted off her powers and back into he demon, who roared in pain as his own weapon hit him in the chest. Flame leapt up and around him and with a final scream, the demon erupted into particles of fire and was gone. Prue took a breath of relief.

"I don't know how!" Paige dodged another energy ball, her mind clouded with fear.

"It's just like summoning something! Direct your powers with your hand and send the balls back at them!" Phoebe shouted into the melee, exchanging punches with a demon. She landed one on the side of his shoulder, but instead of him falling like she had intended him to do, he growled at her with a light of hatred burning in his green eyes. The next time Phoebe swung her leg up to kick the demon in the chest, it seized her foot and twisted it, throwing the witch off balance and flying away from him.

"Phoebe!" Piper shrieked as her sister hit the stone wall with a smack and slid down it, unconscious.

"Augh! Fireball!" Paige panicked when the demon hurled a fireball at her instead, and she held out her hand, as if letting it come to her then, without thinking and just as the ball dissolved into white lights, she jerked her hand in the direction of the demon who threw Phoebe and sent the fireball back to its thrower. The demon was just as surprised as Paige as he watched the flames consuming him, dumbfounded. "Wow," Paige said, after the demon had exploded. "That was cool."

Piper was flicking her hands repeatedly at the remaining demon, continuously knocking him off balance as she tried to destroy him. Time after time, a small burn appeared on the demon's cloak and it jerked, but still it did not vanquish. Her powers were not nearly strong enough for her to kill him by herself.

"Your attempts are futile, witch!" The demon barked, unleashing yet another sizzling energy ball at her. This time when her hands went up the energy ball froze, but the demon simply shook off the freeze, which was aimed for him as well and continued to move towards her, speeding up with each step.

"Prue!"

"Piper!" Prue yelled her sisters name just as Prue shouted her own and waved her hand. Time seemed to stand still. The demon was almost on Piper when the energy ball broke from its spell and swerved, propelled by Prue's powers, to catch the demon in the chest, and he disappeared in a wave of fire and bellows.

As the smoke and stench cleared, Prue blinked and looked around. Piper had fallen to her hands and knees, exhausted after the effort of battling the demon. Lucy and Paige were at Phoebe's side, shaking her and calling her name repeatedly, trying to wake her up.

A hand touched Piper's shoulder and Prue knelt next to her. "Are you alright?" She asked, but she saw in her sister's eyes that she was hurting. A quick glance at Piper's shoulder caused Prue to wretch. Bloody and burned folds of skin surrounded a smoldering burn that glistened with blood, the result of the fireball that Piper had fallen victim to. How her sister had stayed conscious through the pain was a mystery to Prue. "Oh my god, Piper," Prue whispered, fumbling for her shirt. She wrenched a strip of fabric from the hem of it and used it to bind her sister's arm, gently but tightly. Piper closed her eyes in silent pain, her teeth gritting together roughly, but she did not make a noise as the cloth touched raw flesh.

"We barely lived through three demons, Prue," Piper finally said, whispering to her sister, trying to hold back tears. "Three." She looked into Prue's deep brown eyes, searching for an explanation. "There were five of us, and the Power of Three plus Paige and Lucy!" Prue knew everything, and she would surely know how to get out of this all and how to save the Magicked Ones.

Prue watched her sister's eyes fill with tears and pulled her close, trying to be soothing. Piper leaned her head on Prue's shoulder and Prue brought her hand up to stroke he sister's hair comfortingly. "You will survive, Piper. I'll make sure of that. I'm not loosing you like we lost Mom and Grams. I promise."

Lucy watched the eldest Halliwell comfort Piper, fighting the fear in her own heart as she looked at two of her rescuers and saviors, now reduced to tears and on all fours. "Maybe we should go back," she murmured, mainly to herself, but Paige was right next to her, and heard.

Paige lifted her head slightly as she supported Phoebe in her return to consciousness. She hadn't heard what the Miller had said. "What?"

"Maybe they're already dead."

"Lucy!" Exclaimed Paige, shocked. She couldn't believe it. Her charge, so strong and steadfast in everything she had heard about them so far, was giving up.

The Magicked One stared at her trembling hands and clenched them tightly, feeling completely useless and powerless. "We shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be risking our lives like this. It's not fair for all of you. You all have family and lives to think about. There's probably no hope for my sisters, anyway," she said, her voice breaking with inevitability.

"Stop, Lucy." Phoebe finally had woken up and was watching the woman in Paige's arms. With quick, graceful fingers, Phoebe reached over and brushed tears from Lucy's smooth cheeks. "You did not force us to help you. It is our job and our destiny. Lucy listen to me. We can't leave you or your sisters to die. We won't. They are not dead and they will not be. We will find them and save them."

"Phoebe's right," Piper said, roughly as she and Prue approached them, dried tears on her face mingling with the sweat. "You can't talk like that. You have to keep believing that your sisters are alive."

Prue pulled Phoebe to her feet and slung a supporting arm cross her shoulders, then helped Paige stand with her free hand. "Come on," she said. "We're still alive. That means we keep going, no matter what. We need you to sense your sisters, Lucy."

"Sense?" Lucy repeated, grasping Piper's outstretched hand and climbing to her feet. "I'm not a whitelighter."

Prue shook her head. "You don't need to be…at least, I don't think so. Besides, you can orb. You have at least a bit of angel blood in you anyway. Just focus on them. Clear your mind. Search for them with your heart."

Lucy obeyed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she pushed all thoughts, fears, pains, and worries from her mind, leaving it clear and even somewhat peaceful. The sound of the Halliwell sisters breathing beside her blasted in her ears. She pushed them behind her. Then, it felt like she was rushing through the caves at a speed that was astounding to her, but didn't hurt. The sound of wind flowing freely, like she was in the clouds, a drip of mucky water fell from the ceiling. The squeak of a bat; then, her heart wrenched, but not painfully. She knew that feeling. A soft groan, baleful eyes opinion to see rock, golden shimmers everywhere, surrounding a mass of dark…

"Heather." Lucy opened her eyes and turned towards the passage to her right. "I found them." She pointed a trembling hand down into the darkness. "That way. They were taken that way and they're less than a mile away."

The Charmed Ones looked at each other, slightly surprised that Lucy could do that, then Pure took charge and stepped across the cave. "Come on. It's now or never." She broke into a brisk jog down the corridor. The others followed, hurrying to catch up, hurrying towards their clouded fate, determination banishing all other emotion from their faces, which reflected flickering torch light and shadows from the fire burning in brackets on the cold stone wall.